George Martin Lane and The Odyssey of “One Meatball”

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Martin Lane (1823-1897), a Harvard Latin Scholar who wound up playing an unlikely and small role in pop culture.

A Boston native, Lane graduated from Harvard in 1846, and received his doctorate from Göttingen in 1851 after having also studied in Berlin, Bonn, and Heidelberg. He then returned to teach Latin at his American alma mater, remaining associated with that institution for the balance of his life. He wrote important textbooks on Latin pronunciation and grammar, and generally championed this classical language which has also been a lifelong love of this correspondent. Lane also wrote light comic verse, not a stretch at all for anyone familiar with Horace or Juvenal. And one of his compositions proved to be unexpectedly enduring.

“The Lone Fish Ball” (1855) was based on a real life incident wherein Lane went into a restaurant and found himself somewhat impecunious (there’s your Latin education at work, right there!) and, to his embarrassment had to resort to ordering a small portion of macaroni. In the poem, he converts it to a fish ball, which I think you will agree is funnier. Fish balls, composed of fried fish and potatoes compacted into a lump, were quotidian (more Latin!) fare at the time, not remotely strange. The point was the poverty, and humiliation by the waiter, a distinctly Chaplinesque predicament. The original text of the poem may be found here.

Some wag set the lyric to the tune of the old folksong “Sipping Cider Through a Straw” and the result became a popular student song at Harvard for decades. In 1864 it was even expanded to a full spoofing Italian operetta (Il pesceballo) and presented as a benefit for wounded Civil War soldiers. But it continued to be sung by students for a long while after that.

In 1944 Tin Pan Alley lyricist Hy Zaret (later better known for “Unchained Melody”) and collaborator Lou Singer souped up the words for the modern age, converting the fish ball into a meatball, and this is how most contemporary people know it (that is, among those who know it at all). I first heard of it because of its association with the great vaudeville clown Jimmy Savo.Tony Pastor had a big band hit with it, resulting in similar swing versions by the Andrews Sisters,Bing Crosby, and Candy Candido. Meanwhile Josh White’s folkier-bluesier version was covered by Lightnin’ Hopkins,Lonnie Donegan,Dave Van Ronk,Ry Cooder, and others among the folk and blues revivals of the 1950s and ’60s. Roger McGuinn has paid it tribute on his folk blog.

Thus, a beautiful example of how high and low culture have been known to play ball with one another, even if it is a meatball.

For more on show business history,please see my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.